From the Desk 5/17/2008

This morning I woke up not to the sound of my alarm, which I had decided to not turn on, but ot he sunlight shining through my window. It was a nice change of pace for waking up, and it allowed me to sleep in until 9:30. I got up and fixed some hot tea and ate the last of Stacy's muffins for a light breakfast. I then decided to finish the ceremony video before I did anything else for the day. It took me until 11:30 to finish the video due to the fact that my computer kept crashing whenever I would try to render and burn the project to a DVD. I gave my computer a rest and shut it down for a bit. While doing that I eliminated 2 boxes from my closet in the office by condensing things and pulling out some stuff for donation to Goodwill. Once I had finished doing that I was in a motivated state of mind to continue straightening and cleaning. The good news about that is since I'm slightly obsessive with cleaning in the first place when I really get in the mood to do some serious cleaning it doesn't take very long. I finished that up around 12:45 and decided that perhaps I should take a shower so I could go out in public without smelling like a foot. After showering and feeling extremely refreshed I started the laundry process for a couple of hours while watching various movies on TV.

I decided around 3:00 to go over to Stacy's and mow/pick up the mail before I picked her up at the airport tonight. It was an absolutely beautiful day and I sort of regret not hiking the mountain this morning, but it is probably best for my allergies not to do too much right. I arrived and found that the grass had grown more than I expected, no doubt from the rain that we received this week. I mowed the grass and then chilled for a few minutes inside while I let the mower cool down. It felt kind of odd being there, sitting on the couch and not being crawled all over by Cooper. (Insert quote from Without a Paddle ~ "It's like they're here, but they're not here....know what I mean?" ~ that was for you Hickey) I cooled myself down and then put the mower away, locked everything up, and headed back to the apartment. I ate a snack dinner because if I knew Stacy, she would want to go out to someplace to eat when her plane landed to help remind her that she is home now. (you will find out later...I was right) I found that when I left the video rendering/burning while I was gone, it completed the task successfully! Now all I lack for projects is the reception video, the graduate recognition service, and a vet school roast for Stephanie. (I have a feeling some of these projects will be delayed)

I called Vickie to see if the offer she made on Thursday was still open. She called back a little later to let me know that yes, she would ride down to the airport with me to make sure that I found my way down and back alright. We met at The School Box and she hopped in my car and we hit the road around 9:20pm. Stacy's flight wasn't supposed to arrive until 9:51pm but then we figure in time to collect her baggage and travel to the baggage area from her gate would leave us a little time to get there after her flight was scheduled to arrive. She called me when we were about halfway there and let me know that her flight arrived early and she was waiting at baggage for her things. We eventually got down there and picked her up among the other massive group of people there. I hadn't been to the Atlanta airport since I was in 8th grade so I really didn't remember much of it, but I was still surprised to see the large number of people going in and out of the airport at this time of night. Cooper was especially subdued, from the trip I supposed, but Vickie asked if Stacy gave him any doggy downers to help him relax. She said no, but he still looked very relaxed as you can see from the picture. We made our way back up to The Box where I dropped Vickie off at her car. I headed towards Stacy's house and asked if she had dinner or if she wanted me to stop so we could pick something up and take home for her. She asked if we could go to Taco Mac because she was hungry and wanted to go to a "Georgia place". (see I told you I know my friends) I said sure so we dropped off her luggage and Cooper at her house then headed to the Taco Mac on Hwy 92 in Woodstock. We ordered our food (at 11:15pm) and she proceeded to tell me more about her trip. It sounded very relaxing, but she said she was very glad to be home back where her new friends were. We hardly ate much of our food as we were both talking so much. We got some to go boxes and then headed back to her house. I dropped her off after we made plans for some shopping trips tomorrow (Super Target, the new REI store, etc.). I got home around 12:50am and decided that I really had to go to bed as I was about to fall over from sleepiness.

Meditation for the day: Hebrews 6:10 “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”